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"Shall there not then. I pray thee be given to thy servant two nniles' l.urdcn of 
earth?" — II Kinyg, chap. 5, vene 17. 



Preaciied in Aid of the " Jacobins cf Maryland." 



8Y 8£v. mm mm, i. 



C.ALTiMOKF.; 

r il 1 .N T i^: I) Y OH T H E A {' F ii ii 



F 185 
.K74 
Copy 1 



S E R M N 



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"Shall there not then, I pray thee be given to thy serv:uit t>vo uniU's' LurJc!! of 
earth?" — JI KiJif/s, chnp. 5, verse 17. 






Preached in Aid of the " Jacobins cf Maryland." 



BY R£V. mm KNOK, L, 



CALTliMOlIF; 
P 11 i .N T E i) FOB. T H K A K t h O R . 



s E n M () isr 



" Shiill there not, tlieii, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' Imnleii 
of earth ?" — IlKinga, chap. V., oer. 17. 

My Hearers : 

Consider the case of this manwlio puts so oxtiaordiiinry •^ 
question to Elijah. 

He was Lieutenant General of Assyria. In those day.'^ 
when might made right, and there were no newspapeis to 
speak of the writ of Itabeas corpus, he held no slight power. 
He was, however, though he wore the royal favors, under 
all his military decorations, a loatlisonre leper. 

He had tried all the quack doctors and quack prophets of 
his country, but in vain he cried " out damned spot. ' 

Slowly the disease enlarged its fatal circles, and his future 
seemed fated to he spent among tlie caverns of Assyria— the 
companion of disgusting outcasts^ — picking his steps among 
the whitened hones of those who in the ages had })rec(H]ed 
him there. 

The little captive girl brings him words of cheer. He a)>- 
pears before the Prophet. He follows his directions, washes 
and is healed. 

With a heart over-burdened with joy, he is ready to bestow 
blessing and wealth upon the austere old man. His i(b)la- 
trous opinions are changed. 

''Now I know,"' cried he, " that there is no (^^jd in all the 
earth but in Israel," and, in the strong determination of a 
soldiers will, he declares, "Thy servant will henc«;ibrth 
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods. 
but unto the Lord. ' 



Dotibdcss the old })i-o[)hct saw with gladness tlie frauk 
(Miiotion ot Naaman, but lie said notliinir in commendation, 
and so the general mounts his chariot to he gone. 

He is about to return to his house healed. The joy of his 
Avife,-whoni yesterday he was forced to shun, but now may kiss, 
t'le prattling boy, leader in future of Assyria's hosts, on his 
knee, these make bright pictures in his imagination. Bnt 
o'c the chariot had rolled a few yards a fearful shadow 
darkens Naanian's brow. His joy is gone. He remembers 
the idolatrous opinions of his countrymen. He holds an 
official rank and position which any disregard of public sen- 
timent may endanger. He may be thought a miserable Pie- 
brew, a mudsill Jcav, if he dare express at home the noble 
sentiment he uttered to Elijah. Oh, gigantic struggle of the 
human heart I The soldier who would have faced the com- 
bined enemies of Assyria w^ith joy, and eagerly braved death 
in her cause, whimpers to the prophet these words : 

"' In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant," (notwith- 
standing what I have just said about burnt offering and 
sacrifice.) "■ When my master goeth into the (idolatrous) 
temple of Kimmon to worship there," (the great idol which 
Assyrians worship,) "and he leaneth upon my hand," (as 
state ceremony required,) "and when he boAvs I bow myself 
in the House of Kimmon, when I bow myself in the House of 
Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." All 
the manly determination to worship the Glod that healed him 
liad fled. The courage of the soldier had oozed out in face of 
ti\e tyranny of public opinion, and however, he believed 
secretly there was no God but in Israel, puhlicly, for popu- 
larity, for the sake of his office, to keep his position in so- 
ciety, that royalty might keep hold of his hand, he must 
pretend to be an idolater. Though he knew the image in 
the House of Rimmon to be a great wooden thing, his pusi- 
laminity and cowardice overcame him, soldier as he was, and 
in the twinkling of an eye, from the joyous, frank, brave 
warrior, praising the God of his deliverance, a solitary flash 
<vf })opular disfavor across his mind cbanged him into a cra- 
ven conservative, ready to worship whatever public opinion 
might erect an altar to. 



Jordan had changed his skin into the flesii of a chihl ; be- 
neath that it did not penetrate. Hiy heart was unchanged 
yet, like a chikl's, too. 

The ohl prophet, disgusted at his cowardice, said to tlie 
miserable man, good morning, and marched into his house. 

Naaman had previously asked: " Shall there not, I pray 
thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth?" 

This is the most extraordinary, and to the commentators 
who understand books better than tliey do men, the most in- 
explicable part of this wonderful narrative. 

What did this Assyrian warrior intend to do Avith the 
dirt? 

Strange as this vivid story may seem, it is not without 
parallel in the history of most of my hearers. 

Each of you who has experienced the joy of independent 
thought, or of emancipation from some loathed social cus- 
tom or oppression, has sometimes, as Naaman did, recollect- 
ed the moral contest which your convictions brought you 
with dread ; has shrunk from it, brave as you thought 
yourself in your first joy, and have found relief as he ex- 
pected to do, in "the two," or more it may be, " mules 
burden of earth." History repeats itself. It is the aggre- 
gate story of individual lives, and men have been the same 
from the time of this pusilanimous leper to the days of kin- 
dred diseased men now. 

They have fallen as he fell, from joy to grief, and their 
hearts have taken always such comfort as he took — it is all 
life affords, — and from the same source,- — 

'•Two mules' burden of earth." 

There are many men in Maryland to-day, whose fathers 
and they have been sighing over a social leprosy. They 
have believed it demoralized men, and blasted the soil. They 
have asked what shall be done to extirpate the great evil, 
and how shall Ave find a prophet who will strike his hand 
over the place and heal us? 

The voices of myriads of captive men and maidens have 
suggested the remedy. 

At length our Elijah has come. He has washed us with 
the blood of a nation. The leprosy is departing. Long as 



the political power of Slavery has misgoverned the State, 
to-day its fetters are broken. 

Yet these men, for a moment happy that the day of thral- 
dom has passed ; that tlie leprous spot is healed, and, like 
Naaman, in his first ebullition of joy, ready to vow that at 
no altar but tliat of universal freedom, would they offer burnt 
offering or sacrifice, have suddenly remembered that public 
opinion is at best a fickle thing, — 

" A breath can make it, as a breath has made ;" 

and that hitherto all power and office, dignity and peace, 
have come from those who worship at the altars of partial 
bondage. 

Like Naaman, they pray that the Lord will forgive them, 
if when the multitude bows its head to the long Avorshiped 
})ower, in deceit and hypocrisy, they bow theirs also. 

Hence, they sacrifice principle again. Tliey bring burnt 
offerings that shall please the idol. " Negro apprenticeship, 
that shall soften the change from a state of slavery to a state 
of freedom." They bring the sacrifice of " negro deporta- 
tion," and sing on festive occasions the long-accustomed song 
in the hideous service of tliat temple, " Inequality among 
God's children, and fear of competition in the arts of labor."" 

Nothing will suit such men but Naaman's remedy, "two 
mules' burden of earth," and that enormous quantity, per- 
haps sufiicieut for his baseness, Avill hardly serve them. 

There is something in the Old Testament Scriptures to 
illustrate everything in the New, and there is that truth in 
the New which will guide the life of him that obeys. 

The safest i)lace — the least shifting, the most fixed an«J 
permanent — upon which a man can build a character or lii'e, 
is truth. "Other (good) foundation can no man lay," and 
among all those who have builded there, is not one instance 
where it has been necessary to use Naaman "s prescription- 
"two mules' burden of earth." 

Those who have sufi'ered the Assyrian general's fall, and 
used his remedy, are not confined to age, people or sex. 

Many a fair woman among my hearers, convinced that 
God looks at what a person is, and not at what he has, time 
after time has resolved to place position in societies' circle on 
the basis of individual worth. Suddenly she has remembered 



in Rimmon's temple it is not so. There they see wealth, 
thongh accompanied Avith baseness, flourish. The houses 
of mammon are illuminated, and the gay-dance i)roceeds to 
measured music, Avhile the dwellings of the worthy are 
lighted by single candles, and the only sounds which issue 
out therefrom are the glad voices of children around the 
hearth. 

Beguiled by disi)lay, not remembering that God looks at 
tlie size of one's soul, and not at" the size of his house, they 
lean upon fashion's hand, and meanly bow to society's idol 
They know the truth, but they cannot stand on God's 
basis, and when the magnates bow^ the head, they pray the 
prophet to forgive, them and bow too. 

Many a time has each of you felt as meanly as you actually 
were, when you remembered how little court you paid merit, 
and how much you worshiped fashion's gods ; but posi- 
tion in "society," association with the ruling social class, 
ovecame principle, and to be ''Southern," to belong to the 
slave-breeding aristocracy, to avoid mudsills, whom you 
thought right, and clasp the hands of fashionable traitors 
whom you thought wrong, you have brought sacrifices also. 
And now you offer your country, and the glories of the 
Republic, on these miserable altars. 

You abandon freedom, and your inestimable birthright 
of citizenship, for this worship. Many of you have forgot- 
ten your still living kindred about Plymouth Rock, and with 
the odor of Weathersfield in your skirts, are worshipping at 
these gloomy altars. 

In your silent hours you despise yourselves, and long for 
and use '' the two mules' burden of earth," which Naaman, 
appreciating his situation, would not go home without. 

There are other parallels in this story with the story of 
our time. 

The propliet w^ho cleansed Naaman's leprous skin had 
Gehazi for a servant. 

He had no such cliaracter as the prophet ha^l. He follow- 
ed the miserable Assyrian miles on his journey for the re- 
ward he might wring from the lialf-healed man. 

The prophet of our emancipation at Washington is afflict- 
ed with a similar servant. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



8 

006 092 717 \ 

From Rockville to Concord, to rortlnnd, lie lias sought 

and pleaded with the conservatives of this day, and for the 

favor it will bring has helped them Avith tlioir two mules' 

hurden m earth. 

Pray that, as in the case of Gehazi, the ])rophet may com- 
mand the leprosy of an emancipated race to cleave only 
unto him. 

Time forbids that I should refer to the person,s of ray own 
profession who are dumb as ancient oracles in the ]n'esence 
of public opinion; whose exercise upon ''the p\il})it drum 
ecclesiastic" is a perpetual tattoo and never reveille. 

Who make the paltry excuse of dread of political sermons 
to shield themselves from preaching a Avhole gospel. 

Who use such words of circumlocutioijdn their prayers 
to avoid the offence of naming the President of the United 
States that only omniscience can detect their allusion. 

Who have never said to their people ii^^'this hour of battle 
for truth what their master said, " He thj^t hath no sword 
let him sell his garment and buy 0}ie."'" 

Men who bow their head to Rimmon in p^Jitical storms, and 
to the God of the prophet in personal distress and leprosy. 

In grief let us pass them. 

But what did Naaman do with the dirt^:^ 

He is set forth to us in this story a scriptural example of 
a pusilanimous sneak. 

Brave before the j)eople. A veritable States' Plights man 
when lie cried in his indignation, " Are not Parphar and 
Abanar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of 
Israel," but in opposition to public opinion, in moj-al con- 
tests, in effort to overthrow untruth, in hostility to error and 
a publicly professed lie, a miserable conservative and coward. 

What did Naaman do witli the dirt? 

He ate it! As every cowardly, pusilanimous " conserva- 
tive" has done since who has loved ease more than healthy- 
strife, error than hard won truth, shivery than God decreed 
freedom. 

God grant that a less quantity may serve such of you, in 
your humiliation and disgrace, as bring open sacrifice in 
this day to the temple of Rimmon. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



006 092 717 I 

From Rockvillc to Concord, to Portland, he lias sought 
and pleaded with the conservatives of this day, and for the 
favor it will bring has helped them with tlicir two mules' 
hurden m earth. 

Pray tliat, as in the case of Geliazi, the ])rophct may com- 
mand the leprosy of an emancipated race to cleave only 
unto him. 

Time forbids that I should refer to tlie persoUiH of my own 
profession who are dumb as ancient oracles in the presence 
of public opinion; whose exercise upon "the pulpit drum 
ecclesiastic" is a perpetual tattoo and never reveille. 

Who make the paltry excuse of dread of political sermons 
to shield themselves from preaching a whole gospel. 

Who use such words of circumlocutioii An their prayers 
to avoid the oflEence of naming the President of the United 
States that only omniscience can detect their allusion. 

Who have never said to their people ii>'this hour of battle 
for truth what their master said, " lie tlijj,t hath no sword 
let him sell his garment and buy one." 

Men who bow their head to Ilimmon in pofitical storms, and 
to the God of the prophet in personal distress and leprosy. 

In grief let us pass them. 

But what did Naaman do with the dirtT^ 

He is set forth to us in this story a scriptural examj^le of 
a pusilanimous sneak. 

Brave before the people. A veritable States' Plights man 
wlien he cried in his indignation, "• Are not Parphar and 
Abanar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of 
Israel," but in opposition to public opinion, in moral con- 
tests, in effort to overthrow untruth, in hostility to error and 
a publicly professed lie, a miserable conservative and coward. 

What did Naaman do with the dirt? 

He ate it! As every cowardly, pusilanimous "■ conserva- 
tive " has done since who has loved ease more than healtliy 
strife, error than hard won truth, slavery than God decreed 
freedom. 

God grant that a less quantity may serve such of you, in 
your humiliation and disgrace, as bring open sacrifice in 
this day to the temple of liimmon. 



